During spring and early summer, water and rainfall is frequently discussed in the media in South Australia.

The main sources of water for South Australian households and businesses are local reservoirs (usually providing about 50%), the River Murray (normally providing just under one half) and groundwater (providing under 10%) (SA WATER, Annual Report 2004-05). Given that more than half of the water provided to South Australian households and businesses is from reservoirs, rainfall is of critical interest. In the Mt Lofty Ranges catchment areas of South Australia's main reservoirs, the winter (June, July and August) of 2006 was the driest on record, and the first 2 months of spring (September and October) were the driest since 1914 (Bureau of Meteorology, Archive of SA and Adelaide Monthly Climate Summaries). As at 30 November 2006, the main reservoirs were about 42% below capacity (SA WATER, Reservoir levels).

South Australian pastoral districts and agricultural districts are mainly reliant on rainfall for their water needs. During the winter and early spring of 2006, these districts generally experienced below to very much below average rainfalls (Bureau of Meteorology, Archive of SA and Adelaide Monthly Climate Summaries). The southern and south-eastern parts of the agricultural districts and the Eyre Peninsula were particularly affected by the dry conditions.

Adelaide commenced 2006 with above average rainfall for the summer months (January and February) and autumn season. However, Adelaide's 2006 winter was the driest on record. Other features of Adelaide's 2006 rainfall are summarised in Table 1.

As with the Adelaide metropolitan area, the South Australian pastoral and agricultural districts suffered below average rainfall deficiencies during winter and spring of 2006. Table 2 summarises the 2006 monthly rainfall statistics for these areas.

TABLE 2. RAINFALL IN SOUTH AUSTRALIAN PASTORAL AND AGRICULTURAL DISTRICTS, JANUARY 2006 TO NOVEMBER 2006

MONTH

SA PASTORAL DISTRICTS

SA AGRICULTURAL DISTRICTS

January

Average to above average

Average to above average

February

Ranged from above to near average

Ranged from very much above to near average

March

Ranged from average to below average

Ranged from above average to very much above average

April

Average to above average

Average to above average

May

Ranged from below to very much below average

Below average

June

Below to very much below average

Below to very much below average

July

Above to very much above average

Below to very much below average

August

Below to very much below average

Mostly very much below average

September

Below to very much below average

Below to very much below average. Much of Eyre Peninsula recorded 'lowest on record rainfall'

The 113.6 gigalitres (GL) of water held in South Australia's main reservoirs at 30 November 2006 was well below (by about 42%) their combined capacity of 197.4 GL. The two largest reservoirs, Mt Bold and South Para, were at 44% and 59% capacity, while Kangaroo Creek was at 32% capacity. At the same time in 2005, South Australia's main reservoirs were only 6% below capacity.

The main South Australian reservoirs supplying water to Adelaide are within the Mount Lofty Ranges region and the weather stations closest to the reservoirs are the Mt Crawford, Mt Barker and Parawa/Myponga weather stations. Rainfalls in the first four months of 2006 were generally above average. From May to November, 2006 monthly rainfalls recorded at these weather stations were generally below average, particularly for the months of August and October (Graph 3). When the entire period January 2006 to November 2006 (inclusive) is considered, all of these stations recorded below-average rainfall totals for the eleven month period; for Mt Barker the total rainfall was 72% of the average for this period, Mt Crawford was 65% and Parawa/Myponga was 78%.

The average water consumption in the Adelaide metropolitan area for November 2006 was 513 megalitres (ML) per day, which was 22% greater than for November 2005 (421 ML/day). The daily average water consumption for November is 506 ML/day. The total water consumption from July 2006 to November 2006 was 62,931 ML (or 411ML/day)compared with 51,532 ML (337ML/day) for the same period in 2005-06. Source: SA WATER, Reservoir levels

Graph 4 shows the average daily water consumption per person in the Adelaide Metropolitan area decreasing. Water restrictions were introduced in 2003-04.

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